Various apparatuses using a personal identification number or password for identification and authentication have been devised and put into practical use. (In general, the term “personal identification number” refers to a character string represented by a combination of numerals from 0 to 9, and the term “password” refers to a character string represented using numerals and general characters such as alphabet. In this specification, a set of a personal identification number and password may also be referred to as a “personal identification code (PIC)”.)
For example, when a user wants to use an automatic teller machine (ATM) card at a bank or other financial institution, the user is prompted by a cash dispenser or the like to enter a personal identification number or password as means of identification. After it is confirmed that the user has entered the correct personal identification number or password, the user can draw money from the cash dispenser.
Other applications for the personal identification code include entering a personal identification code at a safety box placed at an accommodation facility such as a hotel, entering a password when logging into a computer, and concealing information on an information terminal.
A storage medium such as a magnetic stripe on a known ATM card for a bank has a storage region for use solely in that bank. Entering the above-described personal identification number or password merely accesses the single storage region. The user is thus required to prepare cards for individual objectives or purposes and separately use the plural cards.
Recently, contactless IC cards have become widely used. For example, an IC card reader/writer placed at a cash dispenser, the entrance to a concert hall, or the ticket gate of a station accesses an IC card held thereabove in a contactless manner. The user inputs a personal identification number or password to the IC card reader/writer, and the input personal identification number or password is checked against a personal identification number or password stored on the IC card, thus performing identification or authentication between the IC card and the IC card reader/writer. When the identification or authentication succeeds, for example, the use of an application stored in the IC card is permitted. One possible type of application stored in the IC card is value information, such as electronic money or an electronic ticket.
Due to the improvement of miniaturization technology, IC cards with relatively high-capacity storage spaces have appeared and been widely used recently. Since known ATM cards only have a single storage region, that is, a single application, the user is required to carry a plurality of cards in accordance with objectives or purposes. In contrast, an IC card with a high-capacity memory stores a plurality of applications at the same time. A single IC card thus serves a plurality of purposes. For example, a single IC card stores two or more applications, such as electronic money for conducting electronic transactions and an electronic ticket for entering a specific concert hall. This single IC card serves various purposes.
When such an IC card with a high-capacity memory function (or a semiconductor IC chip with a data carrier function and/or an authentication function) is placed on a mobile terminal such as a cellular phone, a user having the mobile terminal is allowed to exchange electronic value information with the outside world, such as conducting an electronic transaction.
Since known ATM cards have only a single purpose (as described above), a magnetic stripe on each ATM card has a single personal identification number or password to manage the security of the entire card.
In contrast, IC cards with memory functions capable of storing a plurality of applications and mobile terminals having such IC cards (or IC chips) placed therein are required to control the right to access each application because, when a single personal identification code is used to open access to all applications on the IC card, the security in case of loss or theft of the IC card is greatly degraded.
As a memory region placed on the IC card expands due to progress in the manufacturing technology, more numerous applications are allocated to the memory region on the IC card. When the applications are simply allocated to the memory region, the application arrangement becomes complicated for the user, and the user has difficulty in classifying and organizing the applications on the memory region.
In a case in which the right to access the applications is controlled by individual personal identification codes, when the user wants to use a plurality of correlated applications in a series of transactions, the user is required to sequentially input personal identification codes in the same transactions. As a result, the operability of the apparatus is greatly degraded.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved information storage medium with a memory region, an IC chip with a memory region, an information processing apparatus having the IC chip with the memory region, and a memory management method for the information storage medium.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved information storage medium for use by being placed on an information processing apparatus such as a cellular phone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), an IC chip with a memory region, an information processing apparatus having the IC chip with the memory region, and a memory management method for the information storage medium.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an improved information storage medium in which one or more applications are allocated to a memory region, an IC chip with a memory region, an information processing apparatus having the IC chip with the memory region, and a memory management method for the information storage medium.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved information storage medium for controlling the right to access each application allocated to a memory region, an IC chip with a memory region, an information processing apparatus having the IC chip with the memory region, and a memory management method for the information storage medium.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved information storage medium for efficiently managing a plurality of applications allocated to a memory region, an IC chip with a memory region, an information processing apparatus having the IC chip with the memory region, and a memory management method for the information storage medium.